This past weekend, from April 19-22, the DU Department of Theatre featured the directorial work of six senior theatre majors in the first cycle of the Senior Short Play Festival. Each senior directed a short one-act play with a cast and crew of theatre department underclassmen.
The cycle opened with “4:00 A.M. (Open All Night),” directed by Joseph Morrison. Set in a diner in the wee hours of the morning, this play followed the desperate attempts of diner employee Jim (Mikah Conway), later joined by Doc (Drew Harrilchak), to get a dejected man to give a new relationship with yet another diner customer (Tess Neel) a shot. Comedic, but ending on a sad note, the play explores the internal struggle of relationships.
Continuing on the theme of relationships, “90 Days,” directed by Rachel Reidenbaugh, took place entirely through a phone call between two people, Elliot (Kevin Douglas) and Abby (Evan Monteith), as Elliot is in rehab for drug addiction. The phone call saw a slew of lies and miscommunication on both sides, wandering from funny moments to intense ones, but the actors expressed the love the two characters had for each other through the frustration with their situation.
Next came “Double Take,” a beautiful, introspective snapshot of an awkward aftermath of a hookup between two women. Directed by Isaiah Adams, this play’s unusual casting represents each woman with two actors, an Inner Di (Lois Shih) and Outer Di (Rhianna DeVries), and an Inner Eve (Grady Hicks) and Outer Eve (Annaleisa Friednash). The audience sees the internal monologues of the characters played out on stage, with the inner characters berating their outer selves for making poor decisions or saying the wrong thing. The four actors’ genuine performances left the audience heart-wrenched at the end, when the inner thoughts and connection of the two women never quite make it to the surface.
“(Inside) The Imaginary Invalid,” directed by Isis Usborne, was the cycle’s only musical piece and featured the largest cast. A somewhat strange and funny look inside the body, the work sang and danced its way through a bodily imbalance between the Heart (Dana Good), Brain (Katie Goodwin) and Liver (Mary Grace Roach), and the Four Humours—Blood/Sanguine (Alek Seballes), Phlegm (Paula Aguayo), Yellow Bile/Choleric (Loryn Fujinami) and Black Bile/Melancholy (Cedar Haugen). Coming to save the day and restore balance at the end was The Purge (Grace Hayes).
Directed by Tristan Andersen, the penultimate play was Samuel Beckett’s “Ohio Impromptu,” featuring a typical Beckettian pair, this time Listener (Jose Serrano) and Reader (Marcos Descalzi). The two were dressed as two sides of the same coin, both with long, white hair and white painted faces, looking old and tired. Reader stared down at a large book, reading pieces of the work in a commanding tone, occasionally stopped and restarted with knocks on the table by Listener. The play was laced with ideas often seen in Beckett’s works, such as nostalgia, the role of strange sounds and the ghostly haunting of memory.
Finally was “Drive,” directed by Anthony Adu. The play follows a disturbing and strange car ride of the couple Maddie (Alana Silver) and Michael (Aristotle Johns). Michael and Maddie argue and slowly unravel throughout the ride, Michael increasingly revealed to be racist, violent and unhinged. The radio in the car foreshadows clips of the suicidal murder of Maddie by Michael at the end of the play, creating an atmosphere of impending violence. The play was bookended by carefully crafted sound design, featuring bits of speeches about black people, racism and rap songs, framing the play with a critical eye toward contemporary racism.
Upcoming Department of Theatre events include “12 Angry Jurors,” a staged reading, on April 27 at 7:30 p.m. in the Byron Theatre. The second cycle of the Senior Short Play Festival will be May 24-27. Tickets are available through their website.
